UNAIDS today calls on the International Monetary Fund to prioritise the impact of the AIDS epidemic and the need of the government of Zambia to invest in a sustained and urgent response, when reviewing the country's progress in meeting the conditions of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility agreed in April this year.

The Joint United Nations Programme (UNAIDS) welcomes the decision taken by women health ministers today to form an international network to address the growing inequalities women face in accessing basic health services, including HIV care and prevention services.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) sees the Team Joachim Franz initiative as an innovative project which combines the use of sport with AIDS education.

Discrimination against women, both legal and de facto, renders them disproportionately vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Women's subordination in the family and in public life is one of the root causes of the rapidly increasing rate of infection among women. Systematic discrimination based on gender also impairs women's ability to deal with the consequences of their own infection and/or infection in the family, in social, economic and personal terms.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic poses serious human rights challenges - for example, unequal access to HIV/AIDS-related treatments remains a global reality. If countries are seriously committed to protecting the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, then this inequality must be addressed. The problem is urgent. In poor countries, millions of people with HIV/AIDS need antiretroviral treatment immediately and very few of these are on antiretroviral treatment. Without accelerated prevention and treatment the AIDS epidemic will continue destroying communities, health care systems and economies, placing a shadow upon the future of entire countries.

The U.S. government is to be commended for both seeking to enhance and coordinate its own AIDS efforts, and affirming that the AIDS fight can only be won through a concrete partnership between the international community, national governments, the private sector and people living with HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS stands ready to work with Randall L. Tobias, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and U.S. country teams to scale up the AIDS response on the ground in the 15 target countries worldwide.

Grande Rio, a samba school in Rio de Janeiro, has composed a song entitled,

The escalating global struggle against AIDS cannot afford to neglect women, and special efforts will be needed to ensure it is not allowed to. To that end, UNAIDS has pulled together a high profile group of men and women -- the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS -- which gathers activists, government representatives, celebrities, and community workers who are committed to improving the lives of women and girls.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) welcomes the agreement struck by the Clinton Foundation to significantly reduce the price of HIV/AIDS laboratory tests in Africa and the Caribbean, the regions worst-hit by the epidemic. A number of diagnostic companies, including, Bayer, Beckman Coulter, Inc., BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), bioMérieux and Roche Diagnostics, have cut the costs of their tests by up to 80%, enabling more HIV- positive people to access life-prolonging treatment and care.

The Kenyan survey found a lower HIV prevalence among Kenyans – 6.7% compared to 9.4% estimated by UNAIDS and WHO for 2003. However, when broken down by gender, the survey found an HIV prevalence of 8.7% among women, which is in the same range as the 9.4% prevalence estimated by UNAIDS and WHO. However, it also found an HIV prevalence of 4.5% among men, significantly lower than expected.